Apple CEO reportedly questioned on options

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs was questioned by U.S. government investigators about backdating of employee stock option grants at the company, lawyers familiar with the matter said.

Jobs met with officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department last week in San Francisco, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the interviews were confidential. The company said last month that it had found “no misconduct” by Jobs or current management in an internal investigation of the stock option backdating.

The meeting shows that the U.S. government is still seeking information about Jobs’ role in the backdating even after the company’s report cleared him and others, said Nell Minow, editor at Corporate Library, a corporate governance research firm in Portland, Maine.

“It is after all the SEC’s view on his culpability that matters, not the internal investigation at Apple,” Minow said.

The people wouldn’t disclose specifics about what Jobs was asked, what he told investigators or whether there would be additional meetings.

Mark Pomerantz, an attorney for Jobs, declined to comment, as did a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco. SEC spokesman John Nester in Washington declined to comment.

The interview with Jobs was first reported Friday by the Recorder, a legal newspaper in San Francisco.

On Monday, shares of Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple fell $1.71 to $86.79.